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Are you looking for some fun new books for your baby, toddler, or preschooler? Every since I was a child, I remember loving books that were interactive – I loved to read but I also loved exploring with my books. My kids were the same when they were babies but often choose books now that have that added sense to them. DK Publishing has been offering Touch and Feel Books for your children for years!

A while back, I had a chance to review a few of them – Touch and Feel Dinosaurs and Touch and Feel Jungle Animals.

Here is what DK Publishing has to say about these titles, “With a sparkling new look, these bestselling DK classic preschool board books are sure to become favorites for a
whole new generation of young readers. Babies and toddlers will be drawn to the captivating, tactile pages, and will want to touch, feel, and explore every spread.” – I found this to be accurate.

Review
I have seen books that allow you to touch and feel different textures in the past, and as mentioned, I have always been a fan of them. I sometimes wonder, do I or kids enjoy reading them more?! These books allow you and your children to interact, have fun with, and learn from the Touch and Feel books. It is fun to experience new and exciting elements within the pages.

Touch And Feel Dinosaurs
I loved the basic images that were contained within the pages of this book! The simplicity makes it easy for young minds to focus on the variety of sensations that this book offers. This book helps your child interact with it by inviting them to explore the fun textures of various dinosaur parts (e.g. skin, horns, tongue and more). In addition to various sensations, this book will introduce your children to different dinosaur species. This book is a perfect length for young children.

One thing that could be improved in this book – one of the pages in this book has a ‘sticky tongue’ sensation. If you a parent of a young child, you know that things get dirty…fast. To me, a sticky sensation in a Touch and Feel book is asking for trouble; this aspect will likely limit the lifespan of the book. After using this book for a couple of weeks, the sticky sensation has already started to get dirty. After a few months, it had collected quite a bit of dirt. Sticky is tough to deal with as a parent.

Out of these two books, the Touch and Feel Jungle Animals book is my favourite. I love the variety of textures in this book. My daughters also seemed to enjoy the feelings in this book quite a bit.

This book like the other, has basic images and simple directions that make it easy for young children to interact with and learn from this book. This book included a variety of jungle animals and fun textures. This book is the same length as the Touch and Feel Dinosaurs book, making it short enough for young children to stay entertained.

There is nothing in this book that I would change. We enjoyed it from front to back.

I love reading books with my kids and these were a lot of fun. My kids had fun exploring the different dinosaurs and jungle animals and learning about new tactile sensations. I think these books are a great choice for both boys and girls, babies, young kids, and older siblings! Besides these books, we have had several other Touch and Feel Book by DK Publishing in our book collection.

Overall, I think these books are great for teaching your children through words, imagery and touch. Your children will learn about different sensations, animals, and more with Touch and Feel Dinosaurs and Touch and Feel Jungle Animals. There are many other great topics and titles to choose from as well!

Disclaimer: I received a free copy of each of these books to review. Receiving these items did not in anyway affect the information that I shared in this article. All the opinions in this article are my own.

Fall is always the most popular time for Photography Sessions in Winnipeg.

Photograph by Imagery by Bean – www.imagerybybean.ca

If you go to some of the most popular locations for photos in Winnipeg and Rural Manitoba (during the ‘GOLDEN HOUR’), you’ll often see many families and their photographers capturing new memories to update their walls and get ready for holiday cards and gifts.

But with living in Manitoba, many of you already know how quick the leaves seem to drop after the leaves start to change colour. And this year, the colours seem to be changing even faster than normal.

Besides managing the Pregnancy Winnipeg website, I’m the photographer behind Imagery by Bean, Professional Photography Service of Bean Family Wellness.

I have been specializing in capturing special photographs for maternity, birth stories, babies, children, and families since 2012. I love working with families in Winnipeg as well as Rural Manitoba. I have also had the pleasure of being featured in several internationally published magazines for my work with local families.

Because of the quick start to Fall this year, if you haven’t booked a session yet, now is the perfect time to avoid missing the Fall colours!

The Winnipeg Breastfeeding Support Group was created to provide a safe place for women to share their breastfeeding experiences. Research has shown that when women are given the opportunity to call on their own past experiences to help others with breastfeeding, their own confidence in breastfeeding improves. Women who are more confident in their own breastfeeding abilities will go on to breastfeed for longer. Lynette Beard, RN, IBCLC, and founder of the Winnipeg Breastfeeding Support Group Facebook page is a firm believer in building womens’ breastfeeding self-efficacy. The owner of Lynette Beard Breastfeeding Support Service has been helping women find their way along their breastfeeding journeys for over 10 years.

“I wanted to do something that was going to make an impact in our city. With all of the cuts in funding, our breastfeeding community is reaching a new low with appropriate support.” Lynette says. “We have Public Health breastfeeding support groups in place, which is excellent. Unfortunately, many women can’t come to these groups. So how can we connect women who are breastfeeding? I wanted to meet women where they are – at home, on Facebook. The Winnipeg Breastfeeding Support Group on Facebook is a thriving community of moms helping moms!”

Along with being an active online community, the Winnipeg Breastfeeding Support Group will begin meeting on Monday mornings, 9:30 – 10:30am, starting on September 10th. They will be located at Birth Roots, 206-83 Sherbrook St. in Winnipeg. Lynette will be facilitating the meetings and will have speakers visit each Monday. There will be snacks, coffee, and tea for the moms.

Transitioning from work, to having a baby and going on parental leave, then transitioning through your career with a young family can leave you with questions, plus a need for additional support. Shift Career Coaching is a new business in Winnipeg that aims to help women journey through their careers and motherhood. This is very much needed!

Shift Career Coaching: Meg Valdmanis-Miller is an experienced Career Practitioner and Mom with a heart for helping women navigate their careers through motherhood.

Owner Meg offers a variety of career resources are available on the Shift Blog and allows to you keep up to date by subscribing to the Motherhood Advantage e-newsletter.

Meg also runs a self-paced online career course, the Motherhood Advantage Program, to help you transition your career through pregnancy or new motherhood. One-on-one career coaching is available virtually by phone, Skype or FaceTime. Questions are always welcome by contacting Meg or finding her on Facebook.

Are you more than 32 weeks pregnant? Or do you have a baby less than 4 weeks old? If so you may qualify to participate in the Baby Box (Portable Bassinet) Study. Read below to learn more.

If you don’t qualify but know of someone who might be interested, please feel free to share the image in this post.

“Do you need a safe place for your baby to sleep but don’t have a crib? This research study will help you get a safe place for your baby to sleep and help you to learn more about how to keep your baby healthy and safe. If you are 32 or more weeks pregnant or have a newborn less than 4 weeks of age, and you don’t have a crib, cradle, or bassinet for your baby, you may be eligible.

Please call us at (204) 451-0621 or email lwarda@wrha.mb.ca to find out more or sign up!”

Born is a first of it’s kind exhibit in Manitoba. Highlighting Professional Birth Photographer s of Manitoba at the The Pembina Hills Arts Centre. Nine birth photographers in Manitoba will have their photographic artwork featured as part of this event:

Catherine Brown

Holly Klassen

Ilissa Kolly

Megan Stoneman

Alicia Thwaites

Jennifer Doran

Elliana Gilbert

Luci Stebner

Carla Bryski

Come to view the artwork and read the stories of families welcoming their babies earthside at ‘Born’. The Born Exhibit will help to normalize and de-stigmatize birth in Manitoba. Join us!

Before I entered my childbearing years, I was happy to give blood on a semi-regular basis – I figure those who can, should! Let’s face it, giving blood isn’t really a walk in the park, but it sure feels good to know that it can save someone’s life. (And the cookies you get afterwards are a sweet bonus!) When I am done having kids, I know that giving blood will be a priority for me again… for now my body has a hard time with having enough iron, so I’ve made a personal choice to put blood donation on hold during this season of life.

I was amazed to learn that every week in Manitoba, Canadian Blood Services must collect just over 1,000 units of blood to keep up with local patient demand. It is an unfortunate fact that some of those units will be used to help mothers who have complications during labor.

For the rest of May, Canadian Blood Services is encouraging you to take an hour out of your day and donate blood. Bring a friend or a family member and donate on behalf of all mothers who are now able to hold their baby because someone decided to GIVE LIFE.

Go to www.blood.ca to book your appointment at 777 William Ave, today.

Sarah Picken and Janelle Hebb are holding two upcoming retreats on healing from difficult birth experiences. See the posters and more info on Sarah and Janelle below.

Sarah Picken and Janelle Hebb are both finishing their studies this year in the Marriage and Family Therapy (Master’s degree) program through the University of Winnipeg. They have each been seeing clients for several years as part of their requirements and will be graduating this year. Sarah has a private practice specializing in treating birth trauma (http://sacredhealing.org). Janelle is a certified yoga instructor through Yoga Centre Winnipeg; they incorporate yoga and meditation into their retreats.